Friday, March 07, 2008

Porcupine makes lioness beat hasty retreat

Junagadh : In a reversal of power-play, a lioness retired hurt with quills embedded in her back, after she failed to prey on a porcupine at the Gir Wildlife Sanctuary, on Sunday.

Fearing, that the big cat may turn into a man-eater like man-eating tigers crippled by porcupines’ quills, officials are urgently tracking down the beast.

According to reports, forest department officials saw the young lioness as she was about to pounce upon a porcupine in the north range of Jabudi Thana in Gir on Sunday.

“Like tigers and leopards, lions too love porcupine meat, but fail miserably while preying on it,” said a forest official.

“The porcupine raised her sharp-edged quills, and when the lioness tried to closed on to it, the porcupine darted its quills which embedded in her back. The wounded beast vanished into the woods,” the official said.